Who manages a new Miami condo, and what does the management agreement say?

The association manages the building, through a licensed manager it hires under a management agreement, and in a branded building the brand's operator runs the service under a separate agreement and a licence. Three documents therefore decide who runs the place: the management agreement, with its term, its fee and its termination clause; the brand licence and operator agreement, which say what the name obliges the building to do and who may end it; and, where a hotel shares the site, the shared facilities agreement, which says who owns the pool and who pays for the lobby. In the first years the developer controls the board that signs all three, and Florida's statute gives the owners, once they control the board, a right to cancel certain contracts the developer made. Which contracts, and on what notice, is the question, and we set it out below.

Every Florida condominium of any size is run day to day by a community association manager or a management firm licensed by the state, hired by the association's board under a written management agreement. In a new building the first board is the developer's, so the developer picks the manager and signs the agreement, and the owners inherit it at turnover. The agreement sets the term, the monthly fee and what it covers, the extras billed separately, the manager's authority over staff and vendors, the insurance the manager carries and the notice either side needs to end it. Florida's statute lets the owners, after turnover and by a vote, cancel certain contracts made by the developer controlled board, including some management and service agreements, which is the owners' protection against a long contract signed before they arrived. The specifics of that right, and what a particular agreement says about it, are for counsel. Read when the developer hands a Florida condo association to its owners and the five sections of condominium documents for where the agreement sits in the package.

In a branded building the hotel name is licensed to the developer, and a separate operator agreement sets what the brand's team does in the building and for how much. The published material on our file says this in the developers' own words: at ORA by Casa Tua, Casa Tua is the licensed brand and named hospitality operator, the project is not owned, developed or sold by the brand, and the licence may be terminated or revoked; at Four Seasons Private Residences Coconut Grove the name is under licence from Four Seasons Hotels Limited with an appointed Director of Residence, and the building is not owned, developed or sold by Four Seasons; at The Ritz-Carlton Residences South Beach the name is under licence to Sobe Sky Development LLC and the building is not owned, developed or sold by The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company. A buyer reads three things in those agreements: the term and the renewal, what the brand standard obliges the association to spend, and who may terminate, on what notice and with what consequence for the name on the door. Read what the brand does at ORA, what the Four Seasons name does in the Grove, branded or unbranded residences and what the branded residence premium buys.

The brand's operator usually runs the service the brochure sells, and the published lists on our file show how different that service is building by building: Cipriani Residences Miami publishes 24-hour staff trained by Cipriani, a Residential Concierge and a designated Director of Residences; Villa Miami publishes a building programmed and serviced by Major Food Group with an on site estate manager and curator; Four Seasons Coconut Grove publishes a residential concierge, doorman, bellman, 24/7 security and valet and 24 hour on-call emergency repair, with housekeeping, butler and provisioning à la carte. What a buyer reads next is where the cost sits: inside the association's assessment as a budget line, as a separate service charge the operator bills, or à la carte per use. The estimated budget in the condominium documents shows the first; the operator agreement shows the second; the a la carte menu shows the third. A service that is in the brochure but in none of the three documents is a service the owners will have to buy. Read which Brickell tower has the best service, what goes into the yearly cost of an Edgewater condo and how to read the developer's estimated budget.

A fourth document. Where a hotel and the residences share a building or a site, a shared facilities agreement or a reciprocal easement sets who owns the lobby, the pool, the spa and the restaurant, who runs them, how the costs are split between the hotel owner and the association, and how disputes are settled; the association cannot change it by voting. On our file Anantara Residences Miami publishes ~50 hotel suites and ~120 resort residences beside ~100 condominium homes; the Shoreclub, The Ritz-Carlton Residences South Beach and Ocean Terrace share their sites with a hotel; Villa Miami's restaurant, dock and helipad sit in commercial components sold separately, so their operation is not guaranteed, per the developer. A buyer asks for the agreement before the fifteen day cancellation right runs and reads it beside the budget. Read which new Miami Beach condos have a hotel on site, and does it help, inside the Shoreclub's ownership model and inside Ocean Terrace's ownership model.

Seven questions, each answered by a document. Who is the manager, what is the term and the fee, and what notice ends the agreement. Which contracts the developer's board has signed that will outlast turnover, and which the owners may cancel under the statute. What the brand licence obliges the association to spend, and who may terminate it. Whether the operator's charge is inside the assessment, a separate line or per use. What the shared facilities agreement says about the spaces a hotel shares, and who arbitrates. Whether the developer has guaranteed the budget for the first years, and what happens when the guarantee ends. And how a service listed in the brochure appears in the documents, because the ones that do not are the ones the owners will later pay for or lose. The documents are for counsel; the desk reads them with the buyer so the questions are asked before the reservation. Read documents before closing on a new Miami condo, how to read the amenity rules before buying and can the building enter your Miami condo when you are away for the access clause the manager works under.